Knitting Today!

 Since I seem to be knitting every chance I get,  I thought I would start a new topic:  Knitting Today as a more or less regular feature here.  Some days it might just be a picture.  Other days there may be long drawn out, potentially boring, verbiage.

This is today's episode:

About three weeks ago I "met" a new girl who has started a YouTube channel called Seedling Stitch. Her name is Athena Liu.  She calls the channel Seedling Stitch because she just learned to knit in September 2021! She is a doctoral student in engineering in Vancouver, British Columbia.  She was raised in China.  She seems like such a nice girl and has a different (engineering) perspective on knitting.

In her last episode she put out a request for test knitters for her Seedling Stitch Socks pattern design.  Since I really want to knit some socks that fit, I applied.  She kindly accepted me.  I pulled out the sock yarn that I had which I thought might work. When the pattern arrived I decided I needed something different.  Forty-four dollars later I was ready to go....

This is where I am.

Now for the long drawn out explanation!

This sock yarn is Patons Kroy Sock yarn which I purchased at Hobby Lobby.  It is made up in 50 gram balls so I needed two of each color.  There are three colors in the pattern.  I decided to knit two at once on two circular needles.  The needles are US size 1/2.25 mm.

All seemed to go well until I started the leg part.  I.e.  the cuff was a breeze!  When I started the color work I decided to weave in the yarn as I went.  Sadly, I did not remember that I ALWAYS need to go up one or two needle sizes when doing color work...Anyway, it looked fine to me, then I started the short leg section when the faux pas with the color work was made clear to me.  Since I had told our daughter that the socks would be hers if they did not fit me, I continued on.

At the point where the heel flap started, and following Athena's instructions, things began to be snagged up royally so I separated the two socks. This did not make enough of a difference in the snagging so I got out some double-pointed needles, grateful that I had purchased them for the last sock fiasco. You can see that there are about 10 rows (of 32 rows) that I need for the heel flap on the first sock.

My plan is to knit both heel flaps, then the gusset and when I get to the foot I will re-unite the socks on the two circular needles.  It seems like a good plan from where I sit now, BUT who know?!  I may learn other new things, or be refreshed with the knowledge of my own ineptitude.  The one thing I will say is that I am going to go on and finish the socks, and that the socks will be shipped to our daughter. I tried to put them on around 2:30 this morning.  It appears that they will not fit my feet.  All because I failed to remember the color work/needle issue that I "learned" when making the sweater for our daughter...!